


Your average ordinary everyday superhero

by Elisexyz



Series: 25 days of Swanfire fic-mas [14]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emma and Neal raise Henry, F/M, Tallahassee AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 09:31:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17077769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: “Jingle bells, Neal? Really?”





	Your average ordinary everyday superhero

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Christmas songs" prompt in the [ "25 days of fic-mas" challenge on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/tagged/25-days-of-fic-mas/chrono). Tallahassee AU for the sake of it, there isn't much happening XD Title from [here](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/smashmouth/everydaysuperhero.html).

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that,” she sighs, securing the handcuffs on the moron of the day, who keeps struggling against her. His name is Stephen Malone, and she swears he was one of the dullest dates she’s ever had. “Just make it easier for both of us, will you?”

He grunts his disapproval, but before he can do anything else they are interrupted.

“ _Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh_ —”

He gives her a dubious look, and Emma just closes her eyes, silently cursing that idiot that she’s got for an husband.

“Just get in the car,” she orders, raising her voice to cover the sound of what’s apparently her new ringtone and opening the door to push Malone into the backseat.

Neal seems to think that changing her ringtone to a new Christmas song every one or two days is _hilarious_. And, well, he does have fun, so that’s a plus, but _come on_.

“ _Jingle bells_ , Neal?” she asks, taking out the phone as soon as her package to deliver is secured in the backseat. “Really?”

“ _What, I was running out of good Christmas songs_ ,” he protests, and she can very well picture his shit-eating grin. “ _Plus, it’s catchy_.”

“Oh, I _know_.”

He loves humming Christmas tunes all around, and that is one of his first choices. It doesn’t help any that Henry seems absolutely _delighted_ whenever Neal sings – if you can call that _singing_ – it to him.

Emma has a working theory that it has a lot more to do with Neal looking like he’s having the time of his life and pulling silly faces while sort-of-dancing like an idiot than with Henry actually enjoying _Jingle Bells_ in particular, but Neal refuses to believe her.

The result is that sometimes the tune pops into her head at random moments of the day, and it _stays_ there for _hours_.

“ _Did you catch the guy?”_ Neal asks, lightly.

“Yeah, he’s safely secured in the backseat,” she assures, glancing at Malone, who just glares daggers at her. Yeah, that isn’t going to help his situation any. “Why are you calling? I’ll be back in a few hours.” It’s a pity that she can’t just magically appear in the middle of their house: she’s dead tired and she’d just like to crawl into bed right now.

“ _Just wanted to check up on you_ ,” he replies. Emma waits, knowing that that isn’t the end of it. “And _to put it out there that we are out of milk. Just so you know_.”

“No, we aren’t,” she protests, frowning. “There’s a whole carton, I’m sure!”

She should know, she’s the one who bought it.

“ _Yeah, there_ was,” he stresses. “ _Then I left it on the table for, like, a_ minute _, and Henry knocked it over_.”

Of course he did. Henry is right in the middle of his ‘I want to destroy everything’ stage. Possibly because he has watched _Lilo and Stitch_ last week, and it’s his new favourite cartoon: as soon as it ends, he immediately wants to watch it again, and he sits there, perfectly happy with rewatching the whole damn thing from the beginning to end. Emma is pretty sure that she knows half of it by heart by now, and she isn’t even home as much as Neal.

“That’s because you never _close_ it,” she points out. He just leaves _everything_ open, all the damn time, of course Henry is going to knock it all off the table.

“ _I was going to_ drink _it in a minute_!”

Emma snorts. “Fine, fine. I’ll get the milk on the way, got it.”

“ _Thanks, baby_ ,” he replies, happily. “ _Get home safe, and don’t knock the guy out_.”

“Oh, come _on_ ,” she protests. “That was _one_ time!”

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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